Cooking up a scientific experiment

Cookery lesson, or could it be science?

By Georgina Kenyon

Learning to cook can be the recipe for success in the classroom.

Especially if you have a science bent, according to Dr Peter Barham, polymer physicist and lecturer at the University of Bristol.

"I heartily recommend cooking for any prospective science student as its foundations are physics and chemistry," says Dr Barham.

It all began with a birthday cake

"Basically both cooking and science are all about experimentation... and flare."

So forget home economics as just for the prospective parents in your class.

If your sights are on the stars and the hard sciences, you may need some time in the kitchen first.

Even physics lecturers are getting excited about getting their hands dirty.

Dr Barham first became interested in cooking when he finished his doctorate.

That particular week it was his turn to make the birthday cake for a colleague's birthday party at the University of Bristol.

Wrong ingredients

"As I was making the cake, I was trying to follow a recipe in a cook book. But I soon came to realise just how bad recipe books are.

"I realised that if you followed the directions exactly your cake will never look like the pretty picture on the cover."

So Dr Barham put his experimental physics to the task. He wanted to make a cake that matched the colour photo of the perfect chocolate gateau on the cover.

He discovered that all the amounts of ingredients in the recipes were wrong.

After days of experimentation, he changed them.

And it worked.

So, he had his cake and ate it - as did his very happy birthday colleague.

Caviar and chocolate

Dr Barham is part of a growing movement across Britain and Europe called the Molecular Gastronomers, a group of scientists and chefs who are looking at the nitty gritty of food and why certain flavour combinations taste good together.

Like white chocolate and caviar, for instance.

It is pure science, they have discovered, and it is directly linked to how many shared flavour molecules two apparently different foods have in common.

Caviar: The perfect partner to white chocolate?

In the case of white chocolate and caviar, the two foods share a lot of common amine molecules.

Another molecular gastronomer is UK chef, Heston Blumenthal who never shies away from experimentation in his restaurant.

Distillation equipment, nitrogen canisters and heat probes fill the kitchen at his restaurant. Not unlike a school chemistry laboratory.

Based in Bray, Buckinghamshire at The Fat Duck restaurant, Mr Blumentahl is a self-made chef and amateur scientist who consults Dr Barham in his quest for the most unusual food combinations.

"I want to surprise people. I love experimenting," said Mr Blumenthal.

Mr Blumentahl and Dr Barham are currently working on why smelly blue vein cheese and chocolate taste good together for a dessert.

"They go wonderfully together," said Dr Barham.

They believe this is science at its best - unexpected and challenging.

"And most of all fun," Dr Barham added.

You can even eat your experiment afterwards.